The EU Parliament has decided on important parts of the extensive EU climate package. No agreement could be reached on a proposed reform of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
The European Parliament voted on important parts of the EU climate package on Wednesday. The extension of emissions trading (ETS) to buildings and transport was rejected. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would have had to be paid for. The bill was referred back to the Environment Committee. Other important votes on the EU climate package were also postponed after the failure of the ETS reform.
The dossiers on the planned EU border adjustment mechanism for CO2 and the climate social fund are also sent back to the environmental committee.
The EU Parliament is “split between industry-friendly concreters from the conservative and liberal groups and climate protectors who do not want to allow any dilution,” explained Thomas Waitz, MEP for the Austrian Greens and co-chair of the European Green Party. “In the end, the Greens had to pull the necessary emergency brake and vote against the report, otherwise the position of the European Parliament would have lagged behind the position of the Commission, which would have meant an end to the Green Deal.”
Combustion engines from 2035?
The climate package deals, among other things, with a possible de facto ban on combustion engines from 2035. This proposal by the EU Commission is also controversial. The ÖVP is fighting for a softening in this regard, the FPÖ rejects the goal entirely. “With the planned ban on internal combustion engines, the Brussels eurocrats are showing once again that they don’t care about the real needs of the citizens and are causing them the greatest possible damage with their short-sighted urge towards ideology-laden dead ends,” said FPÖ traffic spokesman Christian Hafenecker on Wednesday in a broadcast.
In addition, foreign traders are to pay a levy in the future if they sell their goods in the EU and climate-damaging gases were emitted during production. It should also be about reforestation and other ways of storing CO2.
The background to the votes is a proposal by the EU Commission for the “Fit for 55” legislative package to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 and to become climate-neutral by 2050.
In numerous committee meetings over the past year, the parliamentarians have tried to find a common position that the entire parliament must now vote on. The laws then have to be negotiated with the states before they can be passed.
(APA/dpa)